Kettlebell training and Jiu Jitsu have a long history together in North America. Check out these basic kettlebell exercises that will improve your strength and cardio for BJJ.

For most of us, moving with speed and power on the mats isn’t something that comes naturally. At first trying to use explosive strength is usually accompanied by a lot of flailing of limbs and a general lack of grace, which leads to the term “spastic white belt” being used to describe your style.

Like I said in my last post, the Closed Guard is one of my favorite positions to use when I need to pull out my A game on someone. In my mind, a stronger Closed Guard posture is like a fortress that you can use to safely mount attacks on a faster, stronger opponent.

Since your ability to use your hips to bridge is such a big part of escaping from Side Control or Mount it only makes sense to train this movement…a lot. Most schools use some form of bridging as part of their warm ups and I encourage Jiu-Jiteiros to include different types of bridging in their workouts.

Like my professor tells me all the time – BJJ is a game of space and you are either creating it or occupying it. The problem is that when someone is on top of you occupying a lot of space there it can be tough to create enough for you to move.